Seven Quick Takes, Volume 7

I’m at Tanglewood! The summer home of the Boston Symphony must be one of the most gorgeous places on earth. I have often said that when musicians die, if they go to heaven, it looks like Tanglewood.

We’re enjoying an off day right now, dress rehearsal tomorrow and then I sing Beethoven’s Ninth on Sunday. We are also premiering a piece by John Harbison that had a nice little write up on one of the WSJ blogs.

— 2 —

We have reached the stage of half-marathon training at which long runs start to be mildly traumatic. Today was about nine miles and I’m still a little out of it. That the nine miles were in the Berkshires, which has hills that do more than roll, might have something to do with my exhaustion.

— 3 —

I really shouldn’t complain about the housing they give us when we’re out here, but what’s with the lack of outlets in hotel rooms? I have my computer up on the bathroom counter because I couldn’t get all my work done before I lost the charge.

— 4 —

I’m in the middle of two books right now: Thirty Days: on retreat with the exercises of St Ignatius and The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime. The first is moving me greatly, as I wrote yesterday. The second is a pretty good read also, but it is another example of why I don’t usually choose fiction to read.

— 5 —

While we’re on the topic of reading, for those of you who were wondering, I have not read Fifty Shades of Gray. If that was even a question in your mind we need to have a conversation.

— 6 —

The opera company I work with is in the home stretch of a Crowdrise fundraiser, and I am glad to be helping them Fund the Future. The group has come so far from the days when I was president, when we weren’t even sure we’d be able to afford to print programs. We’re going to keep growing, but how fast we grow has a lot to do with the generosity of PEOPLE LIKE YOU. (I could totally work for public broadcasting).

— 7 —

I am endorsing an affordable organic wine I found out in western mass: Our Daily Red, in addition to being cleverly named is also delicious and organic. I gotta figure where I can get it back in Boston.

I’ll be singing – what will you be doing this weekend? Whatever it is, enjoy it.